Expanding the future of interactive virtual environments, Google DeepMind has integrated Project Genie with Street View. The announcement was made during the Google I/O 2026 developer conference.
The new integration allows users to explore real-world locations in a more immersive and interactive way. Users can also adjust environmental conditions such as weather and even imagine future scenarios within virtual spaces.
Initially launched as a research preview in August 2025, Genie 3 is already being used in Waymo simulators to train self-driving cars for “exceedingly rare events” including tornadoes and unexpected elephant encounters.
Google said the long-term goal of the technology is to improve educational experiences, gaming, and robotics training. The company has been collecting Street View data for the past 20 years using camera-equipped vehicles and individuals carrying “tracker backpacks.”
The addition of Street View data is also expected to support Waymo’s expansion into more cities globally by improving virtual driving simulations.
Google has started rolling out Street View access in Genie to selected Ultra users in the US, with a wider global rollout planned over the coming weeks.
Despite the progress, Diego Rivas, Product Manager at DeepMind, described the integration as an ongoing experiment and said there is still significant room for improvement in terms of accuracy. He noted that while the current visuals are impressive, they are closer to video game quality rather than fully photorealistic experiences.
The models also currently lack physics awareness, meaning they do not yet fully understand cause-and-effect relationships in simulations.
Jonathan Herbert, Director of Google Maps, said Genie cannot yet generate a completely accurate reconstruction of a street. However, he highlighted the AI’s spatial continuity as a major breakthrough, explaining that the system can correctly remember and simulate surroundings even after users turn 360 degrees.
He also hinted that Maps data could be used in more advanced AI research projects in the future.
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